Posts tagged fcc

Net Neutrality. The internet as a public utility. Hooray? The FCC is already receiving a lot of complaints from customers that are sick of data caps, slow speeds and possibly uncompetitive prices. According to the National Journal, a lot of the ire has been directed at a predictable list of offend...

AT&amp;T refuses to pay the FCC the $100 million fine it got slapped with, claiming that it didn't keep data throttling a secret from its subscribers at all. Ma Bell was given with such a hefty penalty, because the agency determined that it slowed down subscribers' "unlimited" internet connections...

Just a couple of days after the DoJ said the deal could go through and FCC Commissioner Tom Wheeler recommend its approval, the FCC voted to make the $49 billion AT&amp;T / DirecTV combo official -- with a few conditions. As we'd heard, the approval comes with strings (in place for four years) inc...

As first reported by the Wall Street Journal, the FCC is gearing up to approve AT&amp;T's $49 billion acquisition of DirecTV. Commission Chairman Thomas Wheeler confirmed that he is set to call a vote on the matter with the FCC's other four commissioners. According to Wheeler, the proposal will "d...

To settle a Federal Communications Commission investigation into 911 outages, T-Mobile will pay $17.5 million. The FCC investigation revealed that two separate outages occurred on the carrier's network last year, lasting around three hours total. While the incidents were separate but related, they...

The net neutrality rules passed by the Federal Communications Commission back in February permit it to examine cable and broadband pricing to ensure customers are treated fairly. Four Senators are urging Tom Wheeler and the FCC to do just that. The group, led by Senator (and Democratic presidentia...

Before a company announces a device, it has to pass through the FCC's secretive bunker to ensure that it's wireless radios are safe for human contact. Droid Life has trawled through the most recent list of anonymized gadgets to find A4R-GG1, a Google-hewn offering that might, just possibly, be the...

The FCC made it clear that towns should have the freedom to build their own broadband services, and one cooperative group is determined to take advantage of that liberty. WiredWest has gained the support of 22 Massachusetts towns for a municipal broadband effort that will give them all fiber optic...

When PayPal updated its user agreement with language suggesting that it had broad powers to make automated calls (aka robocalls) and texts, customers were understandably nervous. Was the company going to spam you until you bought more stuff using its online wallet? Well, you can relax. PayPal is t...

If you subscribe to Cablevision's standard Optimum Online service, we have good news: you're getting a free upgrade. The company has boosted the download speed on its core internet tier from 15Mbps to 25Mbps, making this basic option much more viable for 4K video and other downstream-heavy tasks....

Samsung isn't synonymous with extra-thin smartphones -- that distinction usually goes to Chinese vendors like Gionee or Oppo. However, you may have to rethink that reputation very shortly. Samsung's as yet unannounced Galaxy A8 has just been approved by China's telecom regulator TENAA, and the A...

The Federal Communications Commission has just made it clear that customers can ask carriers to block illegal robocalls and spam messages for them -- and that telcos can legally do so. In a 3-2 vote, the commission has passed a proposal that makes it perfectly legal to stop automated calls before...